Why 2 small French teams?

The organization of the Tour de France 1997 choose for
two little French teams so they can bring more than 40 French riders at the
start.

GAN Team for Tour de France

GAN directeur sportif has named eight of the nine-man GAN team for next
month's Tour de France. The eight are Chris Boardman, Frederic Moncassin,
Gerard Rue,
Francois Simon, Cedric Vasseur, Eros Poli, Stuart O'Grady and Henk Vogels.
The ninth team member will be named after the French national championship road
race at
Montlhery on June 29 and will be chosen from Francois Lemarchand, Arnaud
Pretot, Francisque Teyssier and Scott Sunderland.

Jalabert to Ride Tour de Suisse

Laurent Jalabert, who had a long-standing arrangement to ride the Tour of
Catalonia (June 19--26) will instead be a surprise starter in the Tour of
Switzerland,
starting tomorrow (June 17) and finishing on June 26. Jalabert, who will
accompany
Alex Zulle to the prestigious and prize-rich Swiss national tour, made the
decision
after consulting ONCE directeur sportif Manolo Saiz on Saturday evening after
finishing the
Tour of Luxembourg in 20th place. "After a closer look at the profile of the
Tour of
Catalonia," said Jalabert, "I realised that it had few mountains and developed
the idea
of taking part in the Tour of Switzerland. I spoke to Manolo. He said to me:
'It's true.
You want to go? No problem...'" Jalabert made no superfluous efforts in the
Tour of
Luxembourg, for example conceding 58 seconds to eventual overall winner Frank
Vandenbroucke
in the 16km stage 4 time trial, but nevertheless pronouncing himself
"satisfied".
The Tour of Switzerland will be Jalabert's last race before the Tour de France
since he
has decided not to ride the French national championships at Monthlery -- it
will be on
a flattish course and Jalabert would have been the only ONCE rider taking part.

Pascal Richard not in Tour de France

Pascal Richard of Casino can't start in the Tour de France. On Monday he
had a bottom-operation for an abces. That abces was the reason for his
abandon in the Dauphine last week. Pascal hopes to be fit again in
September for the worldchampionship on the road.

Dutch radio rumours

Rumours (on Dutch radio this morning): Bruyneel injured; maybe Breukink
to the Tour (while he said that 1996 was his 10th and last TdF).

Erembodegem-Terjoden (Belgium) Elite with Contract

Lefevere expects criticism

Patrick Lefevere expects criticism from Italian side about his decision to
send Frank Vandenbroucke (22) to the Tour de France. In Italy team leaders
say an age of 26 or 27 is even a little bit young for the Tour. Lefevere:
"Criquileion remembered me about his first Tour de France. he was 22 too
and became 9th".

Lefevere said Vandenbroucke has to ride in function of the team.
Frank: "I go to the Tour for learning a lot. Of course i can't go with the
best riders in the mountains. I will be satisfied when i reach Paris with
one stage-victory".

Belgium candidate for Worlds in 2002

Beersel in Belgium is a candidate for the world championship on the road in
2002. Mayor Hugo Casaer has given his candidate-ship to the Belgium Cycling
Union. The decision will be announced about 2002 on July 3.